Legends of the Garden - Hilary O’Rourke

The land on which the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden now sits was once part of a productive dairy farm belonging to rhododendron hybridiser Hilary O’Rourke. Ant Dry talks to Hilary’s daughter Kate to find out how a dairy metamorphosed into an internationally-renowned rhododendron garden.

ANT: Where do the O’Rourke’s come from?

KATE: Mum and Dad were both southerners, from Cygnet down below Hobart. Their parents were small orcharders. They lived on either side of the bay but knew each other their entire lives, went to the same Primary school. At 18, Dad joined the army, just after the end of the Second World War. Afterwards he came back home to run his own father’s orchard but his father died in 1950 from a massive heart attack. The property wasn't big enough to divide among seven sons and money was an issue. So Dad went off to Dookie agricultural college in Victoria with the intention of running his own farm. As an AIF soldier he was eligible for a soldier settlement, and eventually selected this property at Romaine.

He married my Mum in 1955 and they set up a dairy farm. It was pretty modern for the day—they had electricity and a concrete floor!! They started off with a herd of about 30 or 40 cattle and built up over the years. In the late 1960s Dad got a job down at APPM, or the Pulp as everyone called it.

ANT: Why would a dairy farmer need a job?

KATE: By that time there were ten kids in the family (they went on to have 13 in all) and he was putting the kids through school. The farm was just on the edge of profitability.

ANT: What did he do at the Pulp?

KATE: He worked on the filtration pumps. He told us it was due to his great mechanic skills, but we were witness to these skills and we thought perhaps he was employed for some other reason. In 1976 Dad had his first major heart attack. He was 49. Two years later he had another one. It was a big wake up call. Something significant had to change. He was retired from the Pulp and told to find a less stressful life.

ANT: So is that when he took up with Rhodos?

KATE: Yes, but, we have to go back a bit. From a very early age, Dad was very interested in race horses and their breeding. It fascinated him as a young lad of 12 or 13. He wasn’t interested in how the horse per-formed on the track, only on what makes a good race horse.

ANT: Did you have horses?

KATE: No, we never did, but his Mum was a great horse woman, so perhaps his love of horses came from his mother.

ANT: What’s this got to do with Rhodos?

KATE: His first hobby here on the farm after retiring was to grow Australian natives. As with the horses, it was the genealogy of the plants that interested him. Most of the eucalypts on this farm were planted by Dad in the 1980s. We have gum trees from all around Australia. Not long after that, he met Noel Sullivan and his interest moved to Rhododendrons and specifically the breeding and genealogy of the species.

ANT: How did he meet Noel?

KATE: Noel was the dentist at the Pulp, so probably they knew each other from work. I always remember them as very close friends. Noel introduced Dad to the nurserymen around the place—Bob Malone, Ron Radford. They were all members of the North West Rhododendron Society and would spend their evenings and weekends chatting all things Rhododendron. Dad’s knowledge grew quickly, he was a voracious reader. One evening they got to talking about having a permanent place to meet, and wouldn’t it be great if was had a garden to go with that. Then Dad piped up, “it just so happens, I’ve got a spot for the garden, so let’s do it.” So they did and the garden was born.

ANY: How much of his time did Hilary spend at the Garden?

KATE: All day. Every day. He’d sold all farming operations by about ‘81 or ‘82. He’d also subdivided and sold most of the farm over the years. He and Noel were growing and hybridising rhododendrons. The pig sty and then the dairy became the nursery. Every nurseryman’s dream. Concrete floors, under cover, hot and cold running water and electricity! There were Rhodos all over the place planted in rows like a crop of potatoes.

ANT: What was he planning to do with them all?

KATE: Breed Australian rhododendrons for Australians.

ANT: Did he ever “retire” from the gar-den?

KATE: He stepped back by about age 75, and allowed others to take over. His old mates had gone by then, and he’d had about 5 heart attacks, so it was time.

ANT: Where does the name “Hilary” come from?

KATE: It’s an old Cygnet name. It’s common in the area. There was a priest in the area with that name. Fr Hilary. And his own Father’s name was Hilary as well.

ANT: What was he like as a Dad?

KATE: He was a beautiful man. He was very even tempered. It would take a lot for him to get upset. He was keenly interested in what we were doing as individuals and what we were interested in. He fol-lowed our sporting lives, would take us to various sporting events. He even came along and watched us girls play every now and again. He never pushed us, we were free to choose what we wanted to do in life. While we were away from home stud-ying or working he would write us long letters about what was going on around the place, what our mother and the cousins were doing, that he missed us but was proud of what we were doing. Wonderfully warm. The relationship he and Mum had as a married couple was a real wonderful model. They parented together in partner-ship. There was no playing one off against the other. They were stable, loving, kind and generous.

ANT: What do you think was his philosophy of life?

KATE: First and foremost to get along with people. To be generous, to be looking for what you can do to help someone else. Interestingly, we found out much later in life, that the motto of the O'Rourke family is “to serve”. We don’t think Dad was aware of that, but it did sum up his life.